


All-Seeing, All-Knowing

by Jacob_M_Bosch



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:34:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacob_M_Bosch/pseuds/Jacob_M_Bosch
Summary: After two years as a human, Chuck meets up with an old friend.
Kudos: 4





	All-Seeing, All-Knowing

**Author's Note:**

> There are brief mentions of Chuck maybe hooking up with a lovely lady, and kissing a fella, but other than that there are no real pairings.

Chuck finished his set in front of a bar full of college kids and young urban professionals who wanted to unwind after a week of classes and work. The Strum wasn’t an upscale bar compared to most bars in Downtown LA., but it was still trendy enough to bring in big crowds, especially on weekends. Fridays always brought in the biggest crowds, and that Friday night was no exception. 

The two hundred or so patrons gave him a satisfying furor of claps and cheers and whoops. He waved and smiled under the spotlight. The high he felt after a good routine made his smile feel wide enough to take up his whole face. 

As he was placing his guitar in the open case at his feet Chuck spotted Marv sitting alone in a booth at the back of the bar. 

Chuck paused for a second, surprised.

Jillian, the owner, and his taskmaster, caught his attention with a whistle. She mouth the words thirty minutes. Chuck nodded and then packed away his guitar. 

A group of college aged girls whistled at him as he walked through standing room towards the table and booth sections. Chuck felt heat rise in his cheeks. He was still confused when people displayed attraction towards him. As Chuck Shurley, writer, he had devoted fans who threw themselves at his feet, and he always stepped over them. He was God then. Their pathetic adoration had been worth less than nothing.

Now, though...

“I love your voice!” One woman called out to him.

“Thank you,” Chuck said, still blushing. 

He might get very lucky tonight.

Chuck slid into the opposite end of Marv’s booth and they stared at each other in silence.

Marv was dressed quite differently than when he was last on Earth. He didn’t wear the drab, mismatched clothes of a homeless man, instead he wore a nice dark suit, a knit scarf around his neck, and a long midnight blue wool overcoat.

Marv looked like one of the execs the day workers in the bar worked for.

Chuck, on the other hand, was dressed less professionally in a gray crew neck T-shirt, blue jeans, and scuffed white sneakers.

“Get kicked out of Heaven?” Chuck asked finally.

Marv shrugged. “The new guy let me come down when I asked to see what you’re up to now.”

Chuck smiled and said, “Yeah, he’s a good kid.”

Marv frowned. Chuck wasn’t sure why. He used to be able to tell what all his children thought and felt with a single glance, but now they were puzzles to him.

“Is it you were tired? Was that it?” Marv asked.

Chuck reached for the untouched beer in front of Marv and took a long swig before he answered.

“This is what I always wanted. It just took me a couple millions years to figure it out.”

Marv didn’t look convinced by Chuck’s declaration.

“I read your final work,” Marv said, referring to the last time they sat in a bar together.

Chuck eyed the beer bottle for a few moments while he gathered his thoughts.

“Well, sometimes the characters take on a life of their own, you know?”

“No, I don’t know!” Marv exclaimed.

It occurred to Chuck Marv was angry. Or disappointed? Two years as a human and he still had trouble distinguishing neighborly emotions.

“Tell me why you gave up everything to be—” Marv gestured at the bar full of people.

“I told you. Becoming one of them is what I wanted.”

Marv snorted and rolled his eyes.

“There were easier ways to go about it! You could have given The Light to an Angel. Or Amara!”

Chuck shook his head.

“I didn’t build you for that,” he said. “Amara doesn’t understand why I wanted to create other life in the first place.”

_Yet_.

“So you hand it all over to the Anti-Christ? Really?”

Chuck leaned back in the booth. 

He stared at Marv for a long time before he realized his former Scribe was serious.

“You’ve met him,” he said quietly. He hoped his tone filled in the rest.

Marv squirmed in his seat, and he had a hard time meeting Chuck’s gaze. 

“Okay. Okay.”

Chuck nodded. Satisfied Marv at least he had the good grace to look embarrassed. Chuck took another sip of beer.

“But to make yourself human.” Marv shook his head. “To do it willingly… I don’t understand. I will never understand.”

“You do, don’t you?”

“What?”

“You admired them before any of the others did. You loved them. I saw.”

Marv looked aghast at the suggestion.

“They’re annoying and chaotic,” he said, “and I would never become one of them!”

“Was being human so bad?”

“I ate food from dumpsters!”

Chuck smiled at the memory.

“It’s not funny!”

“It kind of was?”

Marv’s eyes started to glow.

“Come on,” Chuck said. “You were an angel for eons, you’ve forgotten more about this world and its ways than any human alive. You telling me you didn’t have any marketable skills to survive?”

Marv’s eyes stopped glowing and he looked at the stage Chuck performed on minutes before.

“Oh.”

Chuck nodded.

“Oh. And you never had to eat from the trash. You could’ve gone to a food bank. Slept in a shelter. Got government assistance.” Chuck sighed. “But you were too prideful to ask for help.”

Marv didn’t reply, instead he grabbed the beer and took a drink.

“I love them,” Chuck said after a few moments passed. “I always have. Problem was, I thought I needed their love in return. Their worship. I didn’t. I wanted to be a part of them, but I couldn’t do that jealous for their love and attention.”

“You’ll get old. You’ll die forgotten. I can’t…” Marv’s voice cracked before his words trailed away.

“Stand it?”

“No. I can’t stand it.”

“Everything dies. And all is forgotten in the fullness of time.”

“I still don’t understand,” Marv said, clearly wanting to change the subject from death. “Why all the dramatics? Why destroy everything you created and trick those idiots into going against you?”

Chuck finished off Marv’s beer before he answered.

“It was time for something new. To start over. If that’s what the kid wanted.”

“He brought everything back.”

Chuck grinned. His omnipotence ended after he became human, so he had no way of knowing what Jack did afterwards. 

“Good to know.”

“The Winchesters?”

Chuck shrugged. “Why not?”

Marv expression soured as his irritation and impatience grew.

“There has to be more to it than that.”

“Other than you, the Winchesters were my best friends,” Chuck said.

“They almost killed you!”

“No. Was never gonna happen.”

“Why? Because you used to be pals?” Marv sneered.

Chuck shook his head.

“Lots of reasons, but mostly because killing me wouldn’t have been just.”

“Are you kidding me? You murdered the multiverse and all their friends, so how does sparing your life equal justice?”

Chuck lips turned upward in a half smile.

“It’s hard to explain. Even I didn’t fully understand why they would let me live. I think… I think justice is something you have to learn, and then fight for it whenever you can. Even when it’s hard. That's what the Winchesters do.

Chuck shrugged and said, “I’m still learning.”

Marv rubbed his face before his bearded chin ended up in the palm of his hand. He watched Chuck with confusion and loss in his tearful eyes. Seeing the love in Marv’s eyes brought a pleasant warmth to Chuck’s heart. All the angels in Heaven loved him as a father. Even Lucifer, in his own spiteful way, still loved him. Where ever he was. 

Metatron learned to love Chuck as a friend. Some of Chuck’s favorite memories were of “debating” the finer points of meta existence with Metatron. Those centuries long arguments had been a lot fun.

“When I leave here, I won’t ever be back,” Marv said.

“I understand.”

“Is this really what you want?”

“It is.”

“Why?”

Chuck looked into the crowd and found one of the servers balancing a pitcher of beer and several glasses on a platter as he maneuvered through the crowd to a table full of day workers wearing white button down shirts with the sleeves rolled up and loosened ties around their necks.

“See that guy?” Chuck asked, pointing out the server. “That’s James. He’s twenty-eight years old and a very good kisser. He wants to be an actor. The bartender? That’s Piper. She’s been working here since before she graduated from the college most of the kids here go to. She could probably find work anywhere else, but the pay is good and her hours here are flexible. If she needs to take care of her son, Max, she can take off because Jillian is cool about that stuff.”

Chuck turned to face Marv again.

“It took time and a lot of work, but they became my friends. I had to earn their friendship, their trust, and their love. It could last last a lifetime. Or end tomorrow, and that would suck. It’s terrifying not knowing. And it’s wonderful.”

“I don’t understand.”

Chuck smiled warmly at his oldest friend and reached across the table to hold his hand. Marv’s eyes went wide before he stared down at their enjoined hands. He squeezed Chuck’s hand tightly.

“You… You have a soul!” Marv whispered as he stared disbelievingly into Chuck’s eyes.

Chuck didn’t say anything and watched as Metatron came to a deeper realization.

“Did I have a soul, too?”

“You did. A brand new soul. That’s when I knew.”

“B-Because of me?”

“I watched you fall and make so many mistakes,” Chuck said as he cupped Marv’s hand in both of his. “But when you shared the food you found with that dog…” Chuck shook he head. “You didn’t even think about it. Unthinking kindness that gained you nothing, and you did it anyway.”

A distinct whistle grabbed Chuck’s attention. Jillian had her arm raised over her head as she tapped her finger against her watch-less wrist. His break was over.

“If I make it to Heaven,” Chuck said as he rose form the booth, “I’ll tell you all about the gory details of living life as a lowly human. Deal?”

Tears welling in his eyes, Marv nodded.

Chuck turned and hurried back to the stage. As he was setting up he looked back at the booth and saw Marv was gone. He took a deep breath and then spoke into the microphone.

“Welcome everybody! My name is Chuck, and I want to sing for you.”


End file.
